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This week we experimented with our Breadtopia Select Sourdough<\/a>, testing a higher hydration dough and more extensive fermentation and proofing. These breads are all made with our select organic bread flour<\/a>, which consists of hard red spring wheat berries<\/a> that are stone milled, then the flour is sifted to land about halfway between whole grain and white flour. Breads made with this flour are flavorful and airy\u2014at both hydration levels we tested. The original recipe<\/a> is 76% hydration (500 grams flour, 380 grams water) and our variation below is 82% hydration (450 grams flour, 370 grams water).<\/p>\n It is notable that there is not much of a difference in the crumb between the 76% and 82% hydration breads (normal fermentation). The higher hydration dough was still easy to handle even in the test bake where we took the fermentation and final proof quite far. In the photos above, you can see that the extra-fermentation-proofing<\/strong> bread has a more irregular crumb with some large holes likely from tearing of weakened gluten strands<\/strong>. That dough more than doubled during the first rise while the normal dough (second row) expanded by about 1.75x. The final proof of both 82% hydration doughs were long (17 and 19 hours, respectively), but because the over-fermented dough was already farther along the fermentation curve, it ultimately began to look flat in the basket.<\/p>\n The photo galleries <\/strong>after the recipe show the dough stages and the video<\/strong> below depicts the steps for the optional scoring of leaves on the dough.<\/p>\n